


Telling The Truth

by phoenixnz



Series: The Chronicles of Martha and Jonathan [22]
Category: Smallville
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 06:20:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13242300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixnz/pseuds/phoenixnz
Summary: An incident forces Martha and Jonathan to tell Clark the truth about his origins.





	Telling The Truth

Jonathan was in the barn doing some minor repairs. It was a cool October day. He had been out in the field, working, planting and making sure some of the crops would be protected in the coming winter, but then it had started to rain and he’d had to drop what he was doing. 

He couldn’t help thinking about his argument with Clark earlier that morning before his son had gone off to school. He understood how important it was for the fourteen-year-old freshman to fit in. By his birth certificate at least, Clark was somewhat younger than his classmates, although he looked older.

A year ago, Clark had gone through a major growth spurt and he was now taller than most of his classmates. Even the seniors. That hadn’t helped his self-esteem any. He thought that made him a bit of a freak, even though a lot of kids his age had the same thing when they went through puberty.

There were times, however, when Clark appeared a little clumsy. This wasn’t the normal growing tall too fast so the centre of gravity was off kind of clumsiness. They had no idea what caused it since when he used his strange abilities he was as confident as anything. It couldn’t be anything to do with his other-worldliness, Jonathan thought.

Still, that was part of the reason he wouldn’t allow his son to play football. Despite what Martha thought, it wasn’t that he didn’t trust Clark. He was fourteen, not five. He’d proved he could be trusted in most things, but when it came to peer pressure and trying to prove to his friends that he was not a freak or a geek, or whatever the terminology was these days, he was like any other normal kid.

“But Clark isn’t normal,” Martha had argued. “The last thing he wants to do is stand out and by not letting him try out for the team, you’re not helping.”

He wanted to be able to make it up to his son but had no idea how to start. Generally, Clark was a good kid, not given to fits of temper or rebellion like some of the teenage boys Jonathan had seen hanging out by the old movie theatre. When they asked him to do something, sure, he would grumble but he’d still do as he was asked. 

Martha appeared in the doorway. Jonathan smiled at her. She was supposed to be going to some kind of art class that evening. She’d already pre-empted them by telling them not to order pizza. One time, he thought. She’d gone off to some meeting and they’d looked in the fridge, neither one of them particularly fussed about what was in it. Clark had suggested ordering pizza and Jonathan had gone along with it. He couldn’t help smiling at the look on his wife’s face when she learned they had ordered fast food instead of cooking something. 

He frowned at his wife. She wasn’t smiling back. She looked upset.

“What is it?” he asked.

“There … there was an accident. It’s Clark.”

Oh God. His heart pounded in his chest. The worst thing a parent could go through was to lose a child. It had happened to Ethan Miller a few years earlier. He and his wife had lost a child to cancer. Leukemia. About the worst kind there was. Ethan had never really been the same after that.

“Where?” he asked.

“Loeb Bridge. I don’t know what happened. Ethan just called.”

Without stopping to wait for any more information, he ran to the truck and sped off. Loeb Bridge was a couple of miles from the farm. 

As he reached the bridge, he saw several emergency vehicles including an ambulance. The barrier was broken in the middle.

“Jonathan!”

He looked at his friend. “Ethan, what the hell happened?”

“Looks like a car went out of control and hit the bridge. Clark dove in and pulled out the driver. He saved his life, Jon.”

“How did the car even …”

“We haven’t completed our investigation yet but it looks like the car might have been going a little too fast, hit a roll of baling wire and slammed into the bridge.”

Jonathan ran down the bank. Clark sat there with a blanket around his shoulders. He looked wet and a little bedraggled but otherwise okay. 

As relieved as he was, to discover the maniac driving the car was none other than Lionel Luthor’s son, did not help his mood.

Clark was quiet when they got home. Martha fussed over him, even suggesting she not go to her class that night. 

“I’m fine, Mom,” Clark said. 

Martha did go to her class, but she couldn’t help worrying over her son. What he’d done was heroic, naturally, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to his story than he was telling. Her son had a lot of skills, but lying wasn’t one of them. 

When she arrived home after class, she checked on him. He was sleeping, lying on his stomach, his feet poking through the blankets. She quietly straightened the covers and kissed him gently on the forehead.

Jonathan was reading in bed.

“How was he?” she asked.

“A little quiet but … It was Lex Luthor, Martha. He was the one Clark saved. Did you know he was living in town now?”

“I heard Nell talking about it. Lex moved into the mansion yesterday, I think. He’s going to manage the plant.”

It was certainly not a great start for Lex, having been involved in an accident and barely being in town twenty-four hours. The Luthors, despite being the biggest employer in town, were not popular. 

She lay awake half the night worrying about what the presence of Lex Luthor was going to mean to the town. Or what he might learn about Clark. She still remembered the little boy they’d driven to the hospital the day of the meteor shower. He’d looked so vulnerable. Such a sweet little boy. It was just too bad he had such a monster for a father.

She didn’t mention any of her concerns to her husband or son the next morning, sending Clark to catch his bus with a kiss on the cheek. Clark squirmed as he usually did. He’d announced when he’d turned ten he was too old for ‘baby stuff’ and didn’t like hugs or kisses from his mother. Especially around his friends. 

She was surprised later that day when a man turned up in a truck with another truck on the back. 

“Mrs Kent?”

“What’s this?” she asked.

The man handed her an envelope then went to help his colleague unload the truck. It looked to be brand new. Cherry red with white stripes on the hood. Inside the envelope was a card and a set of keys. 

She sighed when she saw the signature on the card. Lex.

To say Jonathan was unhappy was an understatement. He grumbled something and went off to throw some branches into the wood chipper. 

Clark returned home from school an hour later. When he saw the truck, his eyes lit up in delight. Martha watched as he went to talk to his father. She busied herself with her own chores as they talked but from what she could see, the conversation was not going well. 

She heard the clunk and squeal of the wood-chipper and went to investigate only to find Clark had thrust his arm down into the machine. Any other person would have instantly lost an arm but he was strong enough to actually destroy it instead. As Jonathan looked at her, she shook her head. 

He nodded and looked up toward the loft before walking toward her.

“What was that all about?” she asked.

“Clark said Lex’s car hit him.”

She stared at her husband. How could Clark have survived being hit by a car? Especially one going at a high speed?

They’d had a few conversations, especially when questions came up about Clark’s abilities. He’d been involved in a fight with a bully when he was eleven but the bully had quickly backed off when he’d discovered Clark was stronger than him. 

Their son had often talked about being normal, as if being what he was somehow separated him from the rest of his classmates. He’d been doing a lot of research lately on other teens with special abilities but so far hadn’t found anything which could explain his own.

“It’s time,” she said.

They’d avoided the subject for a long time but she knew they couldn’t put it off any longer. She’d dreaded the day he would go to the storm cellar and discover the ship but he seemed to have mostly forgotten about it. Even when they’d had the occasional twister, he’d just sheltered with them and never bothered about the thing under the canvas. 

Jonathan went into the house to pick up a couple of things, then went back out to the barn to talk to Clark. Martha deliberately chose not to listen in on the conversation. Instead she busied herself in the house.

She watched as Jonathan and her son crossed the field and went into the storm cellar a few minutes later. They were barely there a minute or two before Clark ran out of the cellar and disappeared.

Jonathan came back in the house looking upset.

“I take it that it didn’t go very well,” she said.

“He just took off. I don’t …”

“Honey, I’m sure he’ll come home when he’s ready. We just need to give him time to think things through.”

“I hope you’re right, Martha.”

As night fell she began to grow anxious. Clark could look after himself, but like any mother, she worried when her baby was out alone. Jonathan had gone to watch tv but he clearly wasn’t focusing on the news program.

The screen door slammed and Clark came in. 

“Oh, Clark!” She went to hug him. “I was worried!”

“I’m okay, Mom,” he said. “I just … I needed some space, that’s all.”

“I know it was a bit of a shock, sweetheart, but we don’t want you to think we were hiding that from you on purpose. Your dad was just trying to protect you, that’s all.”

“I know, Mom. I mean, I can’t say I don’t wish you’d told me earlier, but I can kind of understand why you didn’t.” He huffed. “I’ve got homework to do.”

She watched him walk slowly upstairs. She could tell he still wasn’t completely okay with it all but at least now he knew the truth.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is a bit of a timejump but when I first started this I used various offscreen moments as my starting point. I am not planning on recapping every episode but just picking out moments, like when Clark's new abilities appeared, exploring how they deal with it.


End file.
